3 skills lawyers will desperately need in the next 5 years — Part 1: Sales

You’re a lawyer? By that title alone, we can assume you already possess a number of skills and traits:

• You enjoy complex problem solving;
• You’re not afraid of a good (read: heated) discussion;
• You’ve listed ‘attention to detail’ on your resume so many times you’ve forgotten what it really means;
• You’ve got good grades on your transcript (As Kanye would say, “D’s ****** ****** D’s, Rosie Perez”);
• You’re a ‘critical thinker’ and;
• You’re intelligent - of course.

Well, 2020 lawyer, I’ve got some bad news for you.

None of those once-coveted skills will set you up for success in 2025.

Don’t get me wrong, you will need to be good at problem-solving, arguing, and critical thinking. You’ll need to be intelligent and you’ll need to pay attention to detail. That’s your ticket to the game.

But the legal industry is changing rapidly. You’re not going to be in the starting team unless you’ve built a skill set that matches our new operating environment.

The good news?

Lawyers are now innovators, strategists, and trusted business advisors. If you have the right skills, you’re going to be doing much more interesting work. Paying attention to the details of your 5th NDA for the day is way less fun than delivering commercially-astute legal advice that makes a positive impact on a company’s growth trajectory.

So, to stake your claim among the lawyers of the future, and to make sure your resume is relevant to the robots who will be your Managing Partner in 2025, here are three new competencies for you to master.

(1) Sales

Lawyers hate salespeople. They even call the firm’s sales team ‘Business Development Professionals’ so they don’t have to say ‘salespeople’ (though lawyers treat BDPs with equal contempt). Unfortunately, lawyers without sales skills won’t thrive in 2025. Here’s why:

“To sell well is to convince someone else to part with resources — not to deprive that person, but to leave him better off in the end.” — Dan Pink, best selling author of ‘To Sell is Human.’

Sales is the profession of uncovering and articulating value for others and Lawyers do this all the time.

Consider the first meeting with a new client. The lawyer will explain their expertise and map out a proposed solution to the problem the client has presented. If they’re a good lawyer, they will demonstrate how this proposed solution will create some benefit (or even advantage) for the client in the future. This is the process of uncovering and articulating the value of hiring a lawyer.

If lawyers are already selling, why is sales important to their future success?

In the next 5 years, three forces will unearth the importance of sales skills for lawyers:

1. Firstly, the economy will contract in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, tightening the purse-strings of clients. This will force lawyers to be more clear about the value they are delivering in each of their billable hours (or fixed-fees!) If lawyers cannot clearly articulate their value, clients will not be able to justify their fees.
2. Secondly, the rise of Alternative Legal Service Providers, legal marketplaces, new legal business models, and legal technology (aka the Modernisation of the legal sector) will create more competition for each client problem. Lawyers will need to outshine their peers to win work, something they have not had to do in the past.
3. Lastly, the consumer-centricity will finally infiltrate the legal profession. Spotify, Uber, Airbnb, and other consumer-focused organizations have given the power (of choice) back to the people. As technological and business model innovations open the legal industry to the world, the consumer will be given more power to choose the legal professional who most suits their needs. Lawyers who cannot clearly articulate their value (i.e sell their services) will be unable to capture and maintain the attention of empowered consumers in this new marketplace.

How to build sales skills to win new work and outperform your competition.

1. Learn more about your ideal client. Survey your favorite clients. Go to lunch with clients you want to work with. Understand what motivates them to seek out a lawyer, why they wouldn’t choose your competitor, and what would get them over the line to work with you.
2. Practice your pitch. Clients don’t care about your distinction in Real Property in 2nd-year law school. They do care that you understand their problems, have helped other people navigate similar issues, and can do so in a timely, cost-effective manner. When you pitch — make it relevant.
3. Become more interested in people. This last step is unconventional, but it’s the real heart of what sets great salespeople apart. If you do not care about your clients; if you’re uninterested in their problems, you will never truly serve them, and so you will never deliver anything of value. Become more interested in people, strive to learn everything you can about them, and over-deliver in your work at every opportunity. That will make you a better lawyer and a better salesperson (not to mention a better human).

In part 2, I’ll discuss the second skill lawyers of the future cannot do without: EQ.